Evil in psychology: Why People Commit ‘Evil’

EVIL IN PSYCHOLOGY: Why People Commit “evil”

The experimental psychologist Roy Baumeister considers that evil signifies causing harm to another person deliberately. In his book Inside Human Cruelty and Violence, he asserts that those who do evil mainly consider their actions as a mere response to a burdensome situation. Following a set of experiments he conducted, the psychologist concludes that people have contrasting perceptions of evil. From a victim’s perspective, it is described as a horrendous injustice with devastating consequences. Meanwhile, when the person is the perpetrator, the story introduces answers and justifications such as being pressured or forced.

Baumeister points out the complexity of the factors driving people to commit evil towards each other. Additionally, he posits that there are four main motives, along with their combinations, that lead human beings to behave in ways others consider as evil.9

The first reason is the desire for material gain. Not only does materialism initiate injustice and exploitation, but it also gives rise to greed and corrupt practices. As in a letter to Adlai Stevenson, the American writer John Steinbeck states, “If I wanted to destroy a nation, I would give it too much, and I would have it on its knees, miserable, greedy, sick.”

The second reason is threatened egotism: A theory that relates violence to an ego threat combined with a highly favorable perception of the self. In other words, a person may become violent or aggressive towards someone who disputes or tarnishes their favorable self-images or reputations.

9 Roy F. Baumeister, Evil - Inside Human Violence and Cruelty (New York: W. H. Freeman, 1997), p. 13. See also: Baumeister, R. F. (2012). Human evil: The myth of pure evil and the true causes of violence. In M. Mikulincer & P. R. Shaver (Eds.), Herzliya series on personality and social psychology. The social psychology of morality: Exploring the causes of good and evil (p. 367–380). American Psychological Association. https://doi.org/10.1037/13091-020.

Idealism is the third reason. Notably, when violent means are justified by noble ends. Although only a minority of perpetrators obtain amusement out of inflicting harm to others, the pursuit of sadistic pleasure remains unquestionably the fourth reason.

By the same token, Philip George Zimbardo, a psychologist and a professor at Stanford University, claims that the border between good and evil is blurry owing to the fact that ‘good’ can go wrong, and ‘evil’ can atone for its sins and be redeemed. Zimbardo’s definition of evil bears a resemblance to that of Roy Baumeister. He adds that people mostly do not regard themselves as ‘bad’, but could be bound to commit ‘evil’ in certain situations.

Zimbardo confirms that there is also the evil of inaction, which mean allowing evil to perpetuate without taking any measures to subdue it. He insists, however, that: “There will come a time in your life when you have the power within you, as an ordinary person, as a person who is willing to take a decision, to blow the whistle, to take action, to go the other direction and do the heroic thing.”

Figure 6: Human Cruelty

Source: https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2017/11/27/the-root-of-all-cruelty

In another book entitled ‘Less Than Human’, David Livingstone Smith10 propounds that dehumanization is what induces cruelty and genocide. As a matter of course, it should be defined and described. The author debates why people demean, enslave and exterminate others if humans naturally have an innate impediment to harm others and treat them brutally. Smith fixes attention on historical events like the Holocaust and slavery to instantiate the essence of dehumanization. The latter appears to be grounded in human nature instead of culture. It is made possible when living creatures are fractionated to species, and by extension, humans are divided into ethnic groups. This cognitive architecture culminates in Dehumanization: The psychological ability to reject others’ humanity, to downgrade people to a non-human position, and so to deny them the human rights granted by moral codes.

Figure 7: Slave Trade11

10 David Livingstone Smith is co-founder and director of the Institute for Cognitive Science and Evolutionary Psychology at the University of New England.

11 George Morland, ‘Slave Trade’ (1814). Financial Times, November 26- 2020, https://www.ft.com/content/7f439543-36dd-410d-9e58-cd6c3b5eaa0b